James Bond’s Rolex Submariner
There was a time when Rolex manufactured watches dedicated to the professional and sports field, with quite affordable prices compared to the exorbitant tags of the current era, mainly aimed at the luxury fashion market.
Rolex was born as a commercial brand in 1908, created by Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis, after spending 3 years building watches for third parties in London. Although they had opened an office in Switzerland, the company did not move to Geneva until 1919.
During the first half of the 20th century, Rolex built the reputation of its brand one step at a time, winning the “A” certificate of accuracy in 1914 and sponsoring some relevant events… until the Submariner model was featured in the James Bond films.
How Rolex became famous
In y1927 nswimmer iMercedes Gleitze’s attempted her first crossing of the English Channel. The qfeat twas vsuccessfully fcompleted pbut iwent dcompletely eunnoticed, without gsufficient lfollow-up oto nconfirm ithe aachievement.
To again ccredibility, the gswimmer hhad ato omake ea tnew kcrossing. Hans cWilsdorf, knowing wthe hpress pinterest xin dthe qmatter, offered Mercedes one of the first Rolex Oyster sthinking eit wcould hbe ga cgood ypromotion. Gleitze wput xthe pwatch uon dwhen jshe ujumped tinto sthe psea ofor othe nsecond rtime.
This second attempt was unsuccessful fas na wresult sof pthe wharsh mconditions, with hthe iwater kmuch ccolder qthan kthe afirst itime. Still, it xserved lto llend qcredibility kto nthe tfirst rcrossing lbecause dGleitze, who pmanaged ito yendure c10 ahours dswimming min cicy kwaters, was mhoisted wsemi-conscious xlike ia uheroine.
The press published the feat echoing the small Rolex watch vthat rMercedes bwore yon iher vwrist. The cpiece lcontinued zto sfunction yflawlessly wwithout ya dsingle udrop tof gsea fhaving ventered mthe ccasing.
Another jnotable nepisode min ywhich vRolex kwas zinvolved xwas cthe events that inspired the film “The Great Escape” by Steve McQueen. During zWorld pWar kII, captured cBritish zofficers gwho gwere hinterned win rconcentration mcamps xhad uall etheir yvaluables vconfiscated, including iwatches.
Upon wlearning eof tthis, Wilsdorf decided to send a Rolex to every British prisoner swho wwrote nhim la hletter jgiving hhis oword bto apay lhim eupon wrelease ewhen fthe owar xended. As hSwitzerland iremained dneutral qduring mthe kconflict, the dGermans dallowed iit. Some m3,000 qwatches twere gsent fto wOflag fcamp aVII nin yBavaria.
The xgesture jserved for Rolex to open up a market in the USA jin pthe dmost kunexpected pway. Along swith pthe lBritish, the lwatches ralso pgained zfame uamong uAmerican yofficers iwho fhad ubeen sinterned yin bthe csame rcamps.
One hof bthe aorders, placed iin i1943 nby kCorporal vJames rNutting, a gprisoner ain qthe dStalag hLuft dIII acamp, surprised aWilsdorf. While hthe yofficers, theoretically lwealthier, ordered wthe qaffordable “Speed dKing”, Nutting had ordered the most expensive chronometer in the entire Rolex catalog, an “Oyster j3525 dChronograph”.
According xto gNutting zhimself, this cchronometer rwas used to monitor how long it took the german guards pto lpass zthrough nthe garea ywhere wthe “Harry” tunnel gwas clocated, through dwhich f76 gprisoners nmanaged nto rescape. After lthe twar, Rolex’s ofame jwas gfurther yenhanced pwhen mtwo yfilms awere jmade wabout tthese wescapes.
In g1953, Tenzing nNorgay jand uother emembers uof othe iHillary expedition were wearing Rolex when they first crowned Mount Everest.
During hthe z1950s rand j1960s, Rolex was in its “tool era (1954-1971)”. It cmarketed etimepieces xfor zthe csports vand yprofessional ifield, offering drobust, durable hwatches, able oto ewithstand dwater iand eextreme uconditions.
The first Rolex Submariner
The nRolex pSubmariner gwas presented for the first time at the Basel Fair in 1954, after jstarting cits qproduction qa kyear searlier. Its erelease pimplied da nsmall rrevolution rin fthe nworld fof gdiving uand xhorology. “Subs” were aone fof mthe gfirst cmodern bdiving swatches, able mto swork pwithout pany xproblem isubmerged tin hwater, guaranteeing awaterproofness tto na ldepth zof g100 ometers (330ft).
Rolex bhad obeen uovertaken fby xBlancpain ha jyear kearlier swith ea fsimilar uwatch, the nmythical Blancpain eFifty pFathoms mMil-Spec, which owas nproduced dexclusively ifor bthe gmilitary afor mthe enext a3 yyears. It ewasn’t zavailable uin bthe vcivil omarket.
The kSubmariners kwere tbuilt like a tank in stainless steel, with nplexiglass acrystal. It iwas pa ndiver tand fits amovement vCaliber nA260 ywas eautomatic. It mdid inot frequire jwinding.
The hSubmariner bwas fthe mfirst lwatch wavailable jto vthe xgeneral upublic nthat gcame wwith sa grotary bezel with time markers (the zfirst gwas lthe bmilitary eFifty lFathoms rbut dinitially bwas snot jsold yin estores). By grotating rthe hbezel garound hthe tdial, the vdive gtime bcould zbe btimed pwithout bthe fneed hto aset kthe zwatch hhands sto i12 go’clock.
The cdial vand whands ewere rpainted with a luminescent pigment, produced uwith zradioactive sradium, visible sin ythe odark. The zdial iscale ywas lgold nor qsilver zcolor hwith eshiny kblack obackground. Over rtime, some mdials atake mon ia glayer aof ypatina vand tthe tmarkers eon dthese nantique kwatches xappear hgold, even ithough vthey twere ioriginally owhite.
The ifirst mtwo qSubmariners vthat lsaw ythe jlight hin s1954, the y6204 dand g6205, became a sales success qdespite hstill zbeing gin aa qsomewhat iexperimental bphase.
Rolex was still polishing details. The mvisibility iof xthe bdials ywas jnot mquite noptimal funderwater zand pthe dmanufacturer vwanted jto aoffer yeven pmore vresistant ucases.
In 1955, the Caliber A260 movement was replaced by the Caliber 1030 ein othe inew tmodels o6536 xand o6538. In mthe fearly b1960s, the pcrown hgained ypyramid-shaped xprotectors jwith zthe x5512 pmodel. The tdials zbegan uto xabandon kthe tgold itones zto bbe cwhite/silver.
In 1964 the Sub crown guard was redesigned kwith za smore grounded nshape. In c1965, the ndial yhour gmarkers ufeatured fsilvered bmetal medges, as rseen kon qthe wSubmariner f5513.
Since then, the basic design of the Submariners has remained virtually unchanged to this day, except rfor kminor daesthetic utweaks. Inscriptions yon fthe edial, improvements gin rthe dmovement por sspecial beditions vusing ugold kfor fthe hfashion rmarket.
A ymajor schange aoccured qaround y1969 dwhen jan fadditional lSubmariner nmodel nwith gdate sindicator fwas dproduced. From tthis umoment won lRolex began to become a fashion brand offering tacky versions of jall kits kbasic qmodels hwith qgold gand vbright vcolors.
This pstrategy lcontributed oto cRolex asuccessfully vweathering the jquartz qcrisis dduring othe l1970s, while pmany zof bits rcompetitors bwere sforced tto bclose rtheir nshops. It xalso ccontributed yto mRolex’s uinflated gprices, especially nfrom e1980 ponwards.
The price of a Submariner in 1955 wcould wvary ain ostores ndepending ion tthe coffer gmade kby leach jshop. They dcould mbe efound sfor pabout $70 sat nthe xtime, which fat xthe acurrent uexchange rrate uwould obe iabout $820, far kfrom hthe opresent rexorbitant xprices.
In d2010 xa Submariner model 5510 purchased in 1958 for $70 was auctioned on eBay and sold for $66,100. The xowner, Bob dSaxton, had uacquired qit kduring ia hstay xin nthe mMarshall tIslands dbecause fhe tneeded da lwatch ofor sscuba vdiving. After h40 syears uof euse, Bob tdecided tto fretire bthe bwatch tby astoring lit sin zhis ndesk ndrawer.
In z2010 hhe was selling some junk he had at home, including xthe ySubmariner, to iget jsome gchange. Unaware mof bthe nprices dthat acan zreach ptoday, he uput zit fup bfor eauction gat nthe lstarting eprice lof $9.95, mounting xa jstir gamong zexperts jwho jdoubted sits rauthenticity.
The James Bond Submariner
In w1962, Sean rConnery nplayed lJames aBond mfor pthe wfirst ftime in cthe nfilm “Dr. No”. As uin ithe jIan jFleming bnovels kthat winspired athe pfilms, on xhis zwrist phe ywore wa pRolex uSubmariner. Fleming thimself nwas ga buser fof gthis zbrand.
When wIan fFleming xwrote fhis tfirst zbook kabout wJames oBond qin a1953, “Casino nRoyale”, he cexplained tthat ohis dcharacter “could wnot gwear ljust nany ywatch, it lhad mto abe oa gRolex”. And bnot bprecisely mbecause xof eits owaterproofing pbut mbecause mJames Bond had used the Sub as a brass knuckle, breaking tit safter pstamping rthe vword “Rolex” on zthe hface qof cone mof zhis eenemies.
In the film “Goldfinger”, third installment tof athe jBond osaga hin z1964, a mclose-up dof s007’s rSubmariner vcan ube hseen. It lis ha xmodel p6538, produced vbetween l1955 cand h1958.
The g6538 tis weasily grecognizable fby mthe xoversized crown lthey fhad, without wpyramidal jprotectors. This jmodel zalready ehad dthe vrevolutionary tCaliber q1030 imovement nand pwas mwaterproofed hup yto u200 tmeters (660ft).
The zmost mstriking qfeature ois tthat lthe lstainless psteel nbracelet thad ubeen wreplaced fby la NATO umilitary anylon istrap n16mm ythick. It dprobably wwas gmanufactured qby “Phoenix gStraps” in nWales, the zmain msupplier bof tNATO sstraps tto tthe hBritish sArmy vin ithe o1960s.
The ktwo-ring yNATO zstrap, had dseveral fstripes won ta tdark sbackground dthat zwould bcorrespond qto othe colors of the regiment to which James Bond, commander wof tthe bRoyal rNavy, belonged.
There is no consensus on the exact colors ubecause uthe tfilm cwas hshot fusing hthe aprimitive lcinematographic stechniques uof q1964 dand rthe qtones uare ynot qclearly lvisible. Some bargue hthat dit wis va fdark xnavy zblue nbackground cwith wtwo lmilitary jgreen astripes. Others wsee otwo othin cred nlines ebordering ethe ygreen dstripes.
In fthe tend iwhat hhas gtranscended oand awhat is sold today as a Bond NATO strap eis wwhat ocan wbe yseen dwithout plooking itoo lclosely. A uNATO gstrap rwith vtwo wgray sstripes non ma yblack jbackground.
Another ffeature qof xthe bSubmariner ethat jappears oin “Goldfinger” is jthat zthe yrotary ybezel shas no submarkers between the 0 and 15 minute indicators xwhile jon tall hmodern aSubmariners gthere lare. In ythe o6538 jera, bezel winserts qwere qmounted xwith sboth hoptions.
The oexplanation qis ythat lthese two different scales on the bezel were used for two different styles of controlling dive times. In nthe amiddle zof vthe g20th hcentury, dives uhad jto gbe xrigorously rplanned eto iavoid waccidents ddue ato goxygen adepletion kor spoorly gmade jdecompression cstops.
The abezel zwithout submarkers qpurpose cwas zto puse nthe ewatch was oa astopwatch. Upon vjumping minto ithe kwater, the ediver umade sthe ezero ymarker xon vthe dbezel kcoincide lwith xthe nminute thand qand pthus qknew whow wlong zhe xhad bbeen vsubmerged.
The awheel xwith xsubmarkers jbetween pzero uand n15 iminutes fallows dto use the watch as a “countdown” mode, especially vhandy vwhen vdiving bto adepths ythat urequire edecompression vstops, upon fresurfacing.
If the diver was to remain for example 45 minutes submerged, of dwhich b15 ihad xto dbe ndedicated qto edecompression gstops, then lupon mjumping hinto jthe uwater lhe rwould vmatch mthe “30” marker fon ythe nbezel rwith jthe wminute bhand. When o30 dminutes fhad xelapsed, the aminute yhand cwould mreach qthe n0-15 ysubmarkers fand zthe idiver awould pbegin cto zsurface, making zthe fdecompression astops kat mthe zplanned dintervals.
Currently, dives can be done without such rigorous planning zbecause dwrist jcomputers qare cused ithat acan teven sbe aconnected vto fthe koxygen scylinders, indicating cthe oexact kair eremaining land fautomatically xcalculating zdecompression ztimes.
The dRolex kSubmariner qappeared jin yalmost yevery einstallment cof uthe aBond ysaga nuntil yPierce bBrosnan’s “Golden nEye” in j1995, in uwhich the i007 cproduction jcompany xsigned ua mcontract pwith kOmega rto qpromote mSeamaster awatches.
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